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Summer 2006

Bernice Buresh on Public Communication and Health

HACSU members and staff were recently invited to attend a workshop on public communication for nurses. The workshop, part of the Emergency Nursing Australasia Conference, was run by Bernice Buresh.

Buresh is an internationally renowned American author, journalist and lecturer. She has recently published, with co-author Suzanne Gordon, a new edition of her award winning book, From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public.

While Buresh's workshop focused on public communication for nurses, much of what she said was relevant to other 'hidden' health and community service workers, such as those working in aged care and disability services.

She explained that while many 'actors' in the health industry - be they patients, doctors or other health specialists - were visible in the media's depiction of the health industry, being filmed, photographed, interviewed and quoted, nurses were largely absent.

Buresh argued that without nurses' voices being heard the public perceptions of nurses were largely shaped by television dramas, not by an understanding of the real work done by nurses.

This silence about nursing work allowed media stereotypes such as the 'nurse as angel' or as simply 'caring' to dominate. These stereotypes tended to downplay the level of serious knowledge and practical experience utilised by nurses on a day-to-day basis. In effect, presenting nursing as virtuous work - devotional, altruistic and self-sacrificing - but not as knowledgeable work.

Buresh spoke about the common reluctance on the part of nurses to discuss the importance of the work they do and their tendency to downplay their role in patient care.

She encouraged nurses to engage in communication with the public, whether that be by participating in media stories, simply using anecdotes in social situations that illustrate the complex and knowledgeable work undertaken by nurses, or writing letters to the editor, to correct the public perception of the work they do. She says that nurses need to better explain that their work is multifaceted and has important consequences, that it involves medical competence and technical proficiency, and is much more than simply 'caring for patients'.

She says, "the more you talk to friends and family about what nurses do and why they are important, the more you can get the public to be your advocates. Talk about your work, enlist allies, and work with your union to make the contributions of nurses to patient care more visible. It would be useful to directly ask your friends and neighbors for help. They should become involved for their own sake."

Those HACSU members interested in the portrayal of nurses in the media may also be interested in:
www.nursingadvocacy.org The Center for Nursing Advocacy
This is an American group whose focus is on increasing public understanding of nursing. The Center is currently running several campaigns aimed at changing the way nurses are portrayed in high-rating US medical dramas such as ER, Grey's Anatomy and House.

Highlights of the website include a review of an article published in the Melbourne Age, which reported that Nurses ranked number one in a poll on male sexual fantasies. The Center for
Nursing Advocacy writes:

"The poll underlines why nursing remains in the midst of a life-threatening global shortage - daunting professional difficulty and hypersexualized social contempt is hardly a winning combination."

For more information, visit, www.silencetovoice.com the official site for Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon's book From Silence to Voice - What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public.

The website includes a section on nursing 'anecdote makeovers', where a nurse re-works a story about the work she does to show her as an active, knowledgeable participant. If you are interested you can also order the book online.